Time to pour a nice cup of tea or a mug of cocoa, cozying up to read about Christmas Crime. There's something about a group of people in a cabin, trapped in a blizzard, with a killer on the loose. Or that special unexpected someone creeping down the chimney. Brrrr!
This morning I saw a list of 25 recommended mysteries from Country Living Magazine that got me right in the spirit.
https://www.countryliving.com/shopping/g69190927/best-christmas-books-2025/
From this list, I liked the Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose. I've read all of the Molly the Maid books except this one.
Merry Christmas Murdle by G. T. Garber also sounds good. I have a couple of the other Murdle titles.
I've already read Janet Hallett's The Christmas Appeal, and loved it, in addition to all of her other books.
Charles Todd's List of Christmas Mysteries
I was in the mood for more Christmas mysteries, and found this list by author Charles Todd. I read both of his series: Ian Rutledge and Bess Crawford.
https://www.mysterycenter.com/2025/10/29/charles-todds-list-of-christmas-mysteries/
I haven't read any of the stories on his list yet, but most sound good and I'll try to track them down.
Charles Todd has a brand new Christmas book out, A Christmas Witness starring his character Ian Rutledge. This one I have, but have not read yet.
The Real Book Spy's 25 Christmas Themed Mysteries
From 2024, a list of mysteries from master mystery list maker Ryan Steck:
These are my picks from the list:
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson is his version of a holiday Fair Play Mystery. He keeps to all of the rules!
Christmas Presents by Lisa Unger
A bookstore owner has an unusual visitor before Christmas, a true crime podcaster who wants to dig up an old crime from her past.
The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson
An American art student in London is invited to spend Christmas at cozy Starvewood Hall. It seems a dream come true until there's a murder.
The Christmas Eve Murders by Noelle Albright
The Merry Monarch pub is hosting its annual scavenger hunt. With a blizzard coming in, there's a knock at the door, and things turn deadly as participants strive to be the winner, no matter what.
Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop
Tales from and about New York City's Mysterious Bookshop. Doesn't this sound like fun?
The oldest mystery specialty bookstore in the world, The Mysterious Bookshop, has for most of its forty-five-year history commissioned an original short story as a holiday gift for its customers. Written exclusively for the store and never published elsewhere, the stories were given as a holiday gift to its customers as a thank you for their business, handed out or mailed between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.
The prompt for the story requires three elements: that it be set at Christmastime, that it involve a crime of some kind, or the suspicion of one, and that it be set at least partially in the bookstore. And from these loose structural guidelines, diverse tales took flight.
The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict
Edie O'Sullivan loves jigsaw puzzles but hates Christmas. When she opens a box on her doorstep on December 1st, there's a six piece puzzle inside that reveals a murder. Though she'd like to ignore it, soon there's a murder and the victim has a puzzle piece in his hand. She'll need to solve this puzzle to keep the body count down.
Not on any of these lists, but the cover caught my eye while I was looking for Christmas Mysteries:
The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries selected by Otto Penzler
From 2013, a compilation of sixty Christmas Mysteries from a wide range of authors across time. On my shortlist.
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